I tried the patapon 2 demo recently and like that they've made changes to fix most of the reasons that I only played patapon 1 half way through, so I've decided that I would like to buy it. However sony is only offering it as a download. Something in my core doesn't like this. I don't want to use the space on my memory stick (of unknown size) and I don't want to delete it when I'm done. I want to have an UMD to throw in a drawer so that one day I might pull it out again and still have it.

Is this just my pack rat showing itself? Or is there something disturbing about paying money for something ephermal. Yes, I'm paying for the experience, not a piece of silly plastic, but I want the secirity blanket of the physical media. I comfortably pay $15 a month for WoW and get nothing but access to data that they keep, so why does $20 once for something that doesn't come with a peice of plastic?

I really like to still buy CDs when I can to, despite the fact they just take up space in a box upstairs. I fear the day my hard drive with the music collection fails (I should really back that up some how) but it's not like the CDs are going to change the fact that the time to rip all that stuff is forever. I do buy single tracks in electronic form only and love the fact I can have the one hit songs for $1.

More disturbing, though, for me, is as our entire society moves to media that can only be played by fancy electronic devices, we gamble more and more on loosing this era to time. A record can be played by someone with something sharp and a resonator, both of which I feel I could fashion with my own hands and materials I could find. A book just requires knowing the language. Picture books even less. I'm not afraid of moving forward, but I feel like we need to realize how ephermeal our society is right now.

I guess if I didn't want to a hypocrite, I should print this out. But... that wastes paper!! :)

Good point about the ephemeral nature of information in our society. Does it make you feel better to compare the amount of durable data produced in modern times (sheet music, picture books, etc.) to the amount of durable data produced in previous eras?

I'd guess there are two reasons for your feelings about this download:

1) The platform you're downloading to is less durable than a plastic disk. (Thumb drives get lost, hard drives crash, DS goes to the dry cleaners.)

2) This type of game is (in your mind) *supposed to* come on a piece of plastic. Warcraft and single hits are completely separate cases (in your mind) and don't *have* to have associated hardcopy.

Ultimately, you should feel free to set whatever arbitrary requirements for entertainment purchases make you happy. Are your requirements preventing you from being happy?

I kind of like the idea of carving out everything with an iso standard onto stone tablets- I'm not gonna, but I still like it ;9

One thing I've wondered before was what our surviving stories will be in, say, 2000 years. who plays the part of gilgamesh? harry potter? twilight? I mean, it could be anything and we won't necessarily be proud of it. Were they proud of beowolf?

What if you drove your car home after paying for it and one day, it was just not in your driveway?The companies that allow something only by download to a device that is net enabled, can take back what they sold you (and they do) at a whim. That creeps me out.And they wonder why DRM encumbered media is more likely to be pirated.If you -buy- something, you want to have some assurance that you actually have it.Now if you look at your download as renting . . . .Does that make it easier to swallow?